Previously Empty Spaces (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
by sammy1026
Summary: A gift from the Allen children gets Steve thinking.


_Mari & Ilna—you guys are the best of the best. I couldn't imagine making this journey with anyone else._

 _Sandy—what can I say, you just get me._

 _REAL Worlders—thanks for all your support and encouragement. You guys make this project a REAL joy._

* * *

 **Previously Empty Spaces (1/1)**

 **The Allen's Apartment**

 **Friday 5:30 P.M.**

"They're heeeeeeeeeeeere." Jacob's excited shout echoed through the Allen's small apartment the second he heard the knock. "Cody! Lieutenant Catherine and Commander Steve are here. Did you hear me?"

"The people on the mainland heard you," Cody mock-scolded as he entered the living room and headed for the front door, his youngest brother hot on his heels.

He opened the door to find a smiling Steve and Catherine hand in hand on the other side. In his free hand Steve held a white bakery box tied with red string. Cody wasn't sure what was in it but it smelled delicious. Catherine wore a broad smile and carried a small bouquet of native island flowers.

"We're here," Steve teased.

"So I heard," Cody smirked. "Come in."

As they stepped into the living room and closed the door Jacob's exuberance got the best of him. "I'm glad you came over, Lieutenant Catherine," he bubbled as he hugged her waist tightly. "You too, Commander Steve." He reached up to give Steve a high five.

"Mooom," he shouted "Lieutenant Catherine and … "

"I heard you," Jenna smiled affectionately as she entered from the kitchen followed by Casey, Kaitlyn and Dylan. She reached he Jacob's side and ruffled his hair. "They're here."

She smiled at Steve and Catherine. "He's a little excited."

"I can see that," Steve nodded. "We brought dessert. Cupcakes from Cake Works."

"Red ones?" Jacob asked eagerly. "Red is my favorite color."

"We definitely all know that." Cody shook his head and smiled as he took the box from Steve.

"We made sure there were some red ones," Catherine assured Jacob. "Also pink, green, blue, orange … I think we got it covered."

"The red ones are the best." Jacob clapped happily.

"They all taste the same," Casey told him.

"No." Jacob shook his head adamantly. "The red ones taste better."

"It's just the food coloring they put in the frosting, isn't it, Mom?" Casey asked.

Jenna gave her oldest daughter's shoulder a squeeze then leaned towards her and lowered her voice. "Yes it's only food coloring but Jacob likes to think the red ones taste better." She kissed Casey on the cheek. "And remember you were six once. You had an _Ice Age_ glass you won at a local carnival and it was the only thing you'd drink out of for months."

Catherine watched the exchange between mother and daughter with a smile. "Here's a little something for the table," she said as she handed Jenna the bouquet.

"You really didn't need to bring anything." Jenna insisted. "I … we … wanted to make you dinner. The two of you do so much for us. As it turns out though it's the perfect way for us to thank you."

"Thank us for what," Steve and Catherine asked. The room was suddenly charged with energy and they were dying to know what was happening.

Jenna looked into the happy and excited faces of her children. "Let's say it together on three," she instructed. "One … two … three."

"We got the house!" they all chorused in unison accompanied by an torrent of enthusiastic claps, fist pumps and high-fives.

"Congratulations!" Catherine squealed excitedly as she hugged Jenna. "I'm so happy for you."

"That's great news," Steve said as he reached out and squeezed Cody's shoulder. "Really great news."

"I signed the papers this afternoon." Jenna could barely contain her own delight.

"We're getting a house!" Jacob jumped in the air and executed a ninja kick. "With a yard. And a big porch. Dylan and me are gonna share a bedroom. Right, Dylan?"

"Right," Dylan looked at Steve and Catherine and rolled his eyes. "He wants to paint it red."

"Can we?" Jacob hurled himself at Dylan and the two boys ended up in a giggling, squirming heap on the floor.

"Casey and I already decided on purple, pink and white for our room," Kaitlyn smiled at her big sister. "We both like those colors and then we can each decorate our own side with posters and stuff."

"That sounds like a great idea," Catherine said enthusiastically. "You should ask Grace to help you. She's very good at that kind of thing."

"Cody's getting a bedroom!" Jacob reported as he disentangled himself from Dylan and jumped to his feet.

"That's awesome," Steve nodded. "Any thoughts on decorating it?"

"Not really," Cody shook his head nonchalantly but Steve could tell he was excited at the prospect.

"Basketball, probably," Dylan offered as he too stood up. "And cars."

"We'll see," Cody said. "I have to think about it some."

"Cody, can you please put the cupcakes in the kitchen and can the rest of you please check to make sure the table is set and put these flowers in a vase," Jenna asked. "There's one under the sink."

"Sure, Mom," they all replied as they headed for the kitchen still talking excitedly about plans for their new rooms.

Jenna turned to Steve and Catherine. "I found out there were two other people besides me who wanted the house. The seller had his choice." She smiled softly. "I have a feeling having you two as my references tipped the scales in my favor. I can't thank you enough."

"We were happy to do it," Catherine squeezed Jenna's hands.

"Very happy," Steve agreed.

"It's gonna mean so much to us to get out of this apartment and into a house. And with my new job … well … things are really looking up for us."

"We're so glad," Catherine said sincerely.

"You deserve it," Steve added.

The emotion of the moment was broken when Casey called from the kitchen. "Mom, something's boiling over."

"Coming," Jenna called back. She turned to Steve and Catherine. "Looks like it's time to eat."

* * *

An hour later, after having enjoyed a delicious meal and some boisterous dinner conversation, not to mention having devoured quite a few cupcakes, Steve, Catherine and the Allens relaxed in the living room, discussing the move to the new house.

Catherine was sitting in the middle of the couch with Steve on one side and Jacob on the other. Jenna sat in the chair across from them with Dylan on her lap. Casey and Kaitlyn shared the other armchair and Cody sat on the arm of the couch beside Steve.

"Can we show them now?" Jacob asked eagerly. He turned to Catherine. "We bought Mom a present and she was so surprised and she even cried when we gave it to her." His head snapped back towards his mother. "Can we show them now?"

"Yes," Jenna nodded with a smile. "You can show them now."

Casey carefully lifted a digital picture frame from the table beside her chair and handed it to Steve. "We made this for Mom. We bought it with our own money"

"You did?" Catherine asked, clearly impressed. "That was very nice of you."

Casey blushed and held Kaitlyn's hand as they watched closely, eager to see their guests' reaction to the frame.

Catherine and Steve smiled brightly as they watched the slideshow of Allen family pictures. Steve couldn't help but smile proudly at the picture of all the children gathered around the tree Cody bought during their initial shopping trip, big smiles on their faces. There were pictures of all the children covered in flour, helping Jenna bake bread for the school bake sale. Jacob in the bathtub covered in bubbles. Casey and Kaitlyn making bracelets. Casey in her track uniform. Cody teaching Dylan to play basketball.

"We lost most of our pictures in the fire so we wanted to start collecting new ones for Mom," Kaitlyn explained.

"That's very thoughtful," Catherine responded sincerely.

"Dr. Davenport needed some help cleaning out the file room and loading a bunch of boxes on a truck to take to storage. He offered to pay the kids to help him," Jenna explained.

"I worked hard," Jacob piped up. "I didn't play. I was a big help. Wasn't I, Cody?"

"He really was," Cody nodded.

"I wanted them to take the money they made and do something for themselves but they had other ideas." Jenna's eyes welled up at the thought of her children's kind hearts and considerate natures.

"We can add music and make it more like a video," Casey said. "We're deciding on what songs to use now. I think it's gonna be awesome when it's done."

Catherine smiled at the girls. "I think it's awesome now so with music it'll be even more amazing."

Jacob began to squirm in his seat.

"Grace is coming over this weekend and bringing her computer. She has lots of music on it so we're gonna pick out some songs we all like," Kaitlyn said as she shot a meaningful look at Jacob who was now bouncing in his seat.

"That sounds like fun," Steve said.

"Ok," Jenna smiled. "I think Jacob might be about to burst if you don't get to the other thing you want to show Lieutenant Catherine and Commander Steve."

Dylan jumped up, reached behind his mother's chair and pulled out a brightly wrapped package. He held it out shyly to Steve and Catherine. "This is for you."

"For us?" Catherine asked as Jacob got to his feet and began jumping on the couch. Cody stood up and moved to the other end of the couch where he caught Jacob in mid-flight.

"You didn't have to get us anything," Steve said genuinely.

"We wanted to," Casey assured them.

She and Kaitlyn watched nervously as Catherine began to peel back the paper. Once she had she opened the box and smiled when she saw a digital frame just like the one the kids made for Jenna.

"We got you one too!" Jacob said happily.

"I love it," Catherine said as she lifted it out of the box and showed it to Steve.

"Me too," he agreed. "I've never had one of these before. It's very cool."

"I kept the secret!" Jacob thrust his hands in the air in celebration.

"You did," Cody agreed as Jacob squirmed in his arms.

"Yeah, by about five seconds," Casey snorted.

"We put in pictures of all the times we've spent together," Kaitlyn said bashfully.

"This is really incredible," Steve said as Catherine touched the button and the slideshow began. There were pictures from the barbecue, from go-kart racing, swimming at the beach house, bowling, even some pictures Mrs. R. snapped when Steve and Catherine were helping out in her class.

Catherine laughed and stopped the slideshow as one specific picture caught her attention.

"What's this?" she asked as she showed the picture first to Steve then to Jacob and Cody.

"That's our feet," Jacob said matter-of-factly. "Commander Steve's feet are really big. Way bigger than mine. Even bigger than Cody's. So we all put our feet together and took a picture."

"That's quite interesting," she chuckled as she showed the picture to the others.

"Jacob is obsessed with the size of Commander Steve's feet," Casey said. "He's been talking about it ever since we went bowling."

"He's been eating his vegetables without a fight so I'm certainly not complaining," Jenna shrugged.

"Commander Steve said if I get as tall as him my feet will grow that big too so I'm eating lots of vegetables to help me grow." Jacob flung his arms out to the side.

"We put some Christmas pictures on there. I hope that's ok," Cody said. "Since that's where .. you know … we met and stuff."

"I'm glad you did," Steve met his eyes. "This is really special. Thanks, guys."

"Yes, thanks," Catherine smiled.

"And you can take the pictures from there and copy them to your phone so you can always have them with you … if you want to," Cody added.

"I think I will," Steve said eagerly. "For a long time the only pictures I had on my phone were from crime … well … they were work pictures. It'll be nice to have something else on there."

"We'll treasure this," Catherine smiled. "And we'll add a lot more pictures as time goes by."

"We're counting on that," Jenna said.

* * *

 **McGarrett/Rollins Home**

 **Friday 8:30 P.M.**

When Steve came back from taking Cammie out he found Catherine standing in front of the refrigerator rearranging various crayon and marker drawings.

"I remember when we used to be able to see the front of the refrigerator," he chuckled.

"Mary sent a new picture Joanie drew," Catherine smiled as she held up the drawing for him to see.

"Ok that looks like me, you and Mary, and I assume that's Joanie I'm holding," Steve said.

"Mary must have helped her a little with drawing the people," Catherine smiled.

"But why are we all being attacked by … are those flying rocks?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be butterflies," Catherine chuckled.

"Ah, that makes more sense," he smiled as he leaned in and kissed her on the temple.

"She also sent a bunch of pictures she took while we were at my folks." Catherine tilted her head towards the island indicating her tablet. Steve picked it up and began looking through the photos, smiling as each one brought up a great memory of their trip to New York.

"She said she framed the one of Joanie at her impromptu birthday party, where she's opening the play food Mom and Dad got her. I think I might do the same thing and put it on the family photo wall."

Steve scrolled until he came to the pic in question then smiled. "I like that one."

"Me too," Catherine agreed. "Did you take a close look at this drawing Jacob sent home with us?"

"The one where we're all bowling?"

"Yeah," Catherine chuckled. "Did you notice the size of your feet?"

Steve looked more closely at the picture and laughed. "They're half the length of the lane."

"He really is obsessed," Catherine chuckled.

Steve picked up the picture frame the Allen kids got them that Catherine had placed on the island when they got home and started flipping through the pictures again. "This really was nice of the kids. I mean they spent their own money and collected all the pictures themselves."

"It's very special." Catherine echoed Steve's words from earlier as she hung Jacob's latest artwork beside Joanie's then stepped next to Steve and looked on as he scrolled through the pictures of their various outings with the Allens.

"I'm really glad they got the house," he said as he continued to scroll.

"Yeah about that," Catherine said, "When the seller called me to check Jenna's reference he mentioned that he talked to you on the phone for almost an hour."

"Uh-huh," Steve said non-committally, never taking his eyes off the scrolling pictures.

"That's a long time."

"I guess," he shrugged.

"What did you two talk about?"

"You know … this and that." Steve looked at her, his face a mask of innocence.

"Maybe the fact that he was ten years ahead of you at BUD/S school," Catherine asked.

"Maybe that," Steve smirked. "I checked him out before Jenna even filled out her final application. I wanted to make sure she wasn't dealing with some dirt bag who would take her for a ride and leave her in a worse position than she's in now."

Catherine wrapped her arm around his waist. "And you found out he was a SEAL."

"I did. So maybe … just maybe … I played that up a little when he called me. Like Jenna said, there were other people interested. I wanted to make sure they got it."

"You're a big softie, Commander," Catherine smiled as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Don't spread it around," he replied.

* * *

Later that night, after copying the pictures from the photo frame to their phones, as Cody suggested, and looking again at the pictures Mary sent, Steve and Catherine gave up on a movie that couldn't hold their interest and made their way upstairs, past the family photo wall.

Suddenly Steve stopped.

"What is it?" Catherine asked. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah … I'm great … it's just …"

"What?" She touched him lightly on the forearm. "Is something wrong?"

"No … no … nothing like that." He looked back at the photo frame sitting on the coffee table, then at the pictures hanging on the wall. "I just never thought about it until now."

"Thought about what?" Catherine asked softly.

"These pictures," he indicated the ones hanging on the wall, "and the ones in the frame the Allens gave us, and the ones Mary sent you … "

"What about them?"

"We all … I mean Nonna has some of these same pictures hanging on her walls, and your folks have some of them framed on their mantle, and now you said Mary is gonna frame the birthday party picture … "

Catherine smiled.

She knew exactly what he was trying to get his mind around.

"It's what being part of a family means," she smiled. "We all share the same memories and the same pictures."

"It feels good," he said as he wrapped his arms tightly around her and smiled at the family picture wall. " The gallery on my phone, the front of the refrigerator, this wall … they all used to be just empty spaces. Now I think at some point we may need to build another wall to hold all the pictures."

He was only half joking.

"I'm looking forward to it," Catherine sighed.

"Me too," Steve smiled. "Me too."

 **THE END**

* * *

If you are not on the REALMcRoll email list and would like to be, drop us an email at realmcroll at yahoo dot com with "Add me, please!" in the subject line. You'll get updates, contests, and fun McRoller games.

Looking for links to all the REAL World McRoll stories in one place? Check out our Tumblr page mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com.

In addition, one of our AWESOME REAL Worlders, **katydid13** , has created a community on here on fanfiction dot net that brings all of the REAL World stories, and all of Mari, Sammy & Ilna's pre-universe stories in one place. You can find it at

community/McRoll-in-the-Real-World


End file.
